Simons Says: Oh BABY!

Well, we did it! Remember my last post when I wasn't feeling well and my back was hurting? Those were contractions! Turns out I had contractions all day long--they were just in my back instead of in my stomach, so instead of feeling like cramps, they felt like kidney stones--I know because I've experienced both. Yuck. Anyways, I have a baby now!!! Here's the story....

I kept having those pains I was feeling all day long and a friend called to see if I wanted to bring my dog to the park with she and her dog. "Sure," I say, "anything to get my mind off this pain." So we all went to the park around 3:00 and stayed until about 5:00 I think just hanging out on a blanket while the dogs played (I should say her dog played. Mine doesn't realize she's a dog, so she sat with the people and hung out.) Afterwards, I came home and David got home around 7:30 or 8:00. We both had separate dinner plans, mine with college roommates because it was Baylor's Homecoming weekend, and him with some other friends of ours. I just didn't feel like going, though, because the pains were getting worse and more consistent. I told him I really thought we may be going to the hospital later that night, so we should stay home. We picked up dinner and once I ate, the pains started coming every 3 or 4 minutes with an 8-minute lapse here and there. We called the doc and he said every time there's a lapse of more than 5 or 6 minutes, we have to start our hour of timing over. Ugh. By this time, I am miserable. They hurt SO BAD and I can't find a comfortable position. Not to mention the fact that I can feel it coming on because it starts out small and then grows worse and worse and then dies down. Every time I feel one coming, I tell David, "Here comes another one." And every time I tell him that, he says, "Are you sure? Really? You're sure you're really having another one?" After about 5-8 times of him questioning whether or not I could tell if I was really feeling excruciating pain, I told him that if he questioned me one more time, he wouldn't like the result and that his job was simply to look at the clock and write down the time as soon as I said another one was coming. After we had a clear understanding of what was expected by all, it went a lot smoother.

So, around 11:45 p.m. my contractions had been about 5 minutes apart for an hour (with one 8-minute gap), and we decided it was time for the hospital. When we arrived, they sent me back to the triage room and I was a 4 (I had been a 2 on Thursday). They watched my contractions for an hour and when they came back to check me, I was a 6. They couldn't believe I had progressed so quickly, so another nurse checked me, and, sure enough, it was time to go to labor and delivery. I got my epidural pretty quickly and I'd just like to take a little time to talk about epidurals. In my case, I LOVED my epidural. I think it is a miracle drug and I would do it time after time. I can't imagine experiencing contractions all the way through after having that epidural. I laughed through my delivery because of it. No one could believe I was having a baby because there was so much laughter coming from my room. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed my delivery and that's because of my epidural.

Anyways, that aside, an hour later I was an 8 and then about an hour after that, it was time to start pushing. I pushed 7 times for a total of about 40 minutes. In fact, they had to make me stop pushing because he was coming so quickly and they didn't have the bed ready and the doctor wasn't in place. At 4:55 a.m. on Saturday, October 24th, 2009, Robert Alan arrived. He was 8 pounds exactly and 20.5 inches long. He had all his fingers and toes and came out crying so we know his lungs work. My doctor said I was an OB's dream, and so I will pass that along because it made me pretty proud of myself. :-)

We stayed in the hospital until Sunday afternoon. I lost it when he got taken from the room to go to his circumcision. It knocked me over when I realized how attached I already was to the little guy. I didn't realize I loved him so much already! Talk about love at first sight....

We've been home all week now, and it's crazy to think that this time last week, I was blogging about some possible contractions. Everything is going great. His daddy is so good with him--he's a natural! We are very happy and just pray every day that we will continue to experience God's blessings and that He will wrap His arms around our precious little gift and protect him.

Here are a few pics of the little man...